Showing results by narrator "Michael Gilboe" in All Categories

Blind since early childhood, Marie-Laure is only 12 years old when she is forced to flee her home as the Nazis occupy France. Werner, a German orphan, has a talent for fixing radios - a talent that the Nazi government is all too eager to embrace. As Anthony Doerr masterfully sweeps us forward, backward, and forward again in time, the lives of these two individuals weave together, intersecting at the bombing of Saint-Malo.

This story bundle includes three novellas and a bonus!

England has had no shortage of influential monarchs, but only Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria had their nation's age literally named after them. Both the Elizabethan era and Victorian era have come to symbolize a golden age of peace and progress in every aspect of British life, with the long reigns of both queens also providing stability.

He listened attentively when Grandpa talked. Curiosity is a terrible curse, he decided. And curious Zander was. He knew that they were considered outsiders on their street even when he was in the second grade. He just knew it even though people were nice to him and to his mother.

There has been no shortage of shocking crimes and trials that generated frenzied coverage across America, but few can lay claim to the "crime of the century" like the murder carried out by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb in 1924. While studying as young adults at the prestigious University of Chicago, Leopold and Loeb devised a meticulous plot to kidnap and murder a child while managing to get away with ransom money, thereby perpetrating what they considered a "perfect crime".

Alongside Robert E. Lee, no one epitomized the chivalry and heroism celebrated by the Lost Cause more than J. E. B. Stuart, the most famous cavalry officer of the Civil War. Stuart was equal parts great and grandiose while leading the cavalry for the Confederacy in Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Stuart was a throwback to the past, but he was also brilliant in conducting reconnaissance, and he proved capable of leading both cavalry and infantry at battles like Chancellorsville.

Among all the various figures in 19th century America who left controversial legacies, it is hard to find one as influential as Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Mormonism, and the Latter Day Saint movement. Revered as a prophet on the level of Moses by some, reviled as a perpetrator of large-scale fraud by others, what everyone can agree on is that Joseph Smith founded a religious movement that played a crucial role in the settlement of the West, especially in Utah.

Hollywood's biggest star at the box office in 1938 was French actress Claudette Colbert, who had already won an Oscar for Best Actress in It Happened One Night (1934) and used her Broadway experience from the previous decade to become perhaps the industry's most famous screwball comedienne. The fact that Colbert had gotten that far was impressive, given that Hollywood loved to cast foreign actresses in stereotypical roles....

Celebrate Halloween with three unique and fun stories: "Frankenstein: IT Support"; "Swamp Monster Voodoo"; "Vampire Caving".

Back pain is one of the most common problems that people, at some point in their lives, experience. Back pain can be categorized as lower, middle, and upper back pain. Muscular and nerve problems, arthritis, and degenerative disc disease can all cause back pain. Symptoms of back pain can be alleviated using pain killers, pain medication, exercise, change of posture, and other natural remedies.

Of all the colorful characters that inhabited the West during the 19th century, the man who has earned an enduring legacy as the region's quirkiest is John Henry "Doc" Holliday (1851-1887), a dentist turned professional gambler who was widely recognized as one of the fastest draws in the West. In fact, the only thing that might have been faster than the deadly gunman's draw was his violent temper, which was easily set off when Holliday was drunk. By the early 1880s, Holliday had been arrested nearly 20 times.

Attila, Emperor of the Hunnic Empire and thus most commonly known as Attila the Hun, is an idiosyncratic figure who has become more myth than man, not least because much of his life is shrouded in mystery. Perhaps the most famous "barbarian" in history, Attila was the lord of a vast empire spanning two continents, but he is best remembered for what he did not conquer.

Bubba Snoddy's got some problems. His family has descended for the Christmas holidays and not in a good way. His cousin wants to own the Snoddy Mansion, decrepit, falling down columns, termites, wood rot and all and isn't above using manipulative behavior to achieve his ends. Miz Demetrice is up to nefarious and illegal activities while trying to entertain relatives.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that it is much easier to overthrow a government than form a new one, and that in turn it is easier to form a government than to govern. The men who founded America knew these facts in theory, but in the last decade of the 18th century, they learned them by experience when, just a few years after the new Constitution had been ratified, a rebellion arose over taxes.

Dozens of men were called robber barons, but few of them were as notorious as Cornelius Vanderbilt, who also happened to be one of the nation's first business titans. Vanderbilt was a railroad and shipping magnate at a time when the industry was almost brand new, but he rode his success to become one of the richest and most powerful men in American history. The industrial might wielded by men like Vanderbilt in the later 19th century directly led to public backlash and made President Teddy Roosevelt the "trust buster".

Franklin helps ghosts move from this world to the next. Sometimes that means giving a ghost a ride so they can confront their killer. Other times, it means listening to the wind in his fields and the trucks blowing down the interstate and hearing the songs a ghost needs to sing.

Many ancient civilizations have influenced and inspired people in the 21st century, like the Greeks and the Romans, but of all the world's civilizations, none have intrigued people more than the Mayans, whose culture, astronomy, language, and mysterious disappearance all continue to captivate people. At the heart of the fascination is Chichén Itzá, the most visited Mayan site, but Chichén Itzá's prominence lasted for less than 200 years and was eventually succeeded by Mayapán.

Mexico City is not a new place. Mexico City instead has much in common with cities like London, Delhi or Cairo in the East in that it is an ancient city dating back centuries before the arrival of Colombus in Hispañola. For, while much (including the name) has changed, Mexico City is the mighty Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire and the great American metropolis of the Spanish Empire. There has been no break in occupation, and despite much devastation, the city was never fully destroyed.

For the last century, one bard after another has come into The Drunken Unicorn to sing about the prophecy blazing from the wall in shiny, blue neon. Galdris, the new owner, has had enough. He'll stop at nothing to remove the prophecy that has tormented him since he bought the inn. Even if it means fulfilling it.

The Circle follows the career of Mae Holland, a young and angst-ridden millennial, as she advances in the corporate hierarchy of the Circle, a company based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her friend and college roommate, Annie, has already secured an influential position at the Circle, which is described as having combined all the best features of Google, Facebook, and Amazon in one place. Mae is happy to have the job, since it allowed her to move away from Fresno, her boring hometown.